Southern Pioneer

Customer Reviews

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  Suzannie

  · January 10th, 2023
  Poor experience, wouldn't recommend Dec. 2022 • I was a part of the PREMIUM NEW ZEALAND GUIDED TOUR- SOUTHERN PIONEER from December 23, 2022 to Jan 1 2023, paying $NZ 3,599. Advertised: You’ll stay in trendy hotels, boutique motels, lodges, and rainforest retreats - no backpackers and no dorm rooms". Unfortunately, this certainly was not the case. We were to be provided “A Night of Glamping Under Southern Stars: Luxury camping experience on a historic farm surrounded by . We were advised by email a week beforehand by Haka tours, that instead of staying at Premium accommodation at the Oasis Yurts for two nights, “Unfortunately, we have recently been informed that our main glamping accommodation provider has had to decline some of our groups due to unforeseen maintenance needs to the property. We have tried to find an alternative Glamping solution but sadly were unable to get space during this peak season with other providers. The alternative accommodation provided was completely unacceptable. Instead of twin share accommodation in a comfortable, hygienic setting with a private bathroom, we were presented with a rooms in the YHA Backpackers hostel with unclean shared bathrooms- toothpaste had been left in the sink; odorous dorm rooms with old and worn furnishings, and wifi unavailable in the rooms. Feeling unsafe being in this unhygienic Backpackers accommodation setting with no privacy or cleanliness, we paid $450 out of our own pocket for these two nights for accommodation in Wanaka of the standard that was promised- NOT BACKPACKERS & DORM ROOMS- as stated on the website regarding Haka Plus Tours. We were promised Twin-share hotel style accommodation and this was not provided. This is unacceptable, underhanded and dishonest behaviour on behalf of the tour guide and shows a complete lack of responsibility or care for the wellbeing of the tour group participants. As stated on the Haka tours website: “ All these New Zealand escorted tours come with an experienced and knowledgeable driver guide who is extremely passionate about showing off New Zealand. In their safe hands you will be sure to fall in love with the gorgeous country that we at Haka Tours call our home.” On the whole, the behaviour of our tour group leader was very flippant and juvenile; and he seemed disorganised and disinterested in giving us information or providing tour participants an educational as well as enjoyable experience. For example, when asked if the tour group members were staying at the YHA Backpackers Hostel Accommodation at Wanaka, he refused to answer the question and said that he would talk about that issue later, constantly deferring and deflecting when asked for information. He also repeatedly used expletives when speaking, spoke about getting ‘sh*tfaced’ and drinking- where his favourite drinking holes were and listened to heavy metal rock music in the bus where swearing was featured constantly. There were mature ladies in their 50s and 60s as part of the tour group. Vaping was a constant activity on his part and care was not taken to avoid exposure of the tour participants to the nicotine vapours. He certainly did not present as a “Passionate and knowledgeable local Kiwi guide” as stated on the Haka tours website. We had Adventure activities booked for Christmas Day but apparently Haka Tours was unaware of the fact that none of the Adventure Activity Companies were open and available for the Public Holiday. All these activities had to be cancelled. Continental breakfasts were supposedly provided as part of the tour but with a number of people with Coeliac Disease and Gluten intolerance, the breakfasts at Queenstown Blue Peaks accommodation consisted of 2 pieces of bread (non gluten-free) with 2 boxes of cereal (non gluten-free), milk, yoghurt and a serving of diced fruit in juice. There was no real attempt at Queenstown at catering for the guests who were unable to tolerate Gluten. “Comfortable and air-conditioned bus transport” was to be provided but our tour group was given a standard van with basic amenities and were told that the usual more luxurious bus for Haka Plus Tours was unavailable. I was very disappointed by the standard of care, consideration and planning that were shown as part of this Haka Plus Tour of New Zealand and would not recommend using this company. Sadly, this has been the worst experience of using Holiday Tours and Guides over the past decade and although understandably there have been many Covid- related difficulties in the industry, there was not enough done by the company to ensure tour participants were safe, comfortable and satisfied- especially as an experience sold as a ‘premium’ product. Yours sincerely, Dr C
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  Trip date: December 2022
• HS

  Heather

  · January 3rd, 2023
  I was disappointed with the quality of experience in comparison to how it was described by the provider. The accommodation and the comfort of the bus experience was not at the standard I was expecting or as advertised. The included activities were not well coordinated with add-on activities, along with Christmas cancelations made for disappointments.
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  Trip date: December 2022
• SP

  Seema

  · January 6th, 2020
  As a driver getting from location A to B, or excursion X, the guide was capable. But he was unhelpful and provided little information on things to do outside of paid excursions. (I.e. in wanaka....made no mention of wanaka tree, or another hiking trail after expressing interest). The hotel in wanaka was far from the city center and the trail head was approx 1 hour away and required walking on main road. He never offered to drive to trail head. In Franz Josef inquired about a hiking group for a day....his response waste of money walk there yourself. The trail was over 2 miles from where we were staying abd he couldn’t drive as it was his day off. Made no mention of a shuttle service that would drive to trailhead. He couldn’t be bothered. On the tour setup and I blame tour guide done what there was lots of dead time/wasted space. In Franz Josef we were meant to do a helihike, which was canceled due to weather. I inquired if I could do a heli glacier landing that took 20 minutes the morning we left with another excursion company and his response was no. If I would be late abd insurance. I would have gone on an 8 am excursion with a 9am planned departure. We left at 9:15, stopped at a jade store for an hour, and stood at the station in gray mouth for about an hour. Clearly enough time padded into the day. The excuse was the road conditions change....it is 2019 and I would expect Haka to be able to get real-time road updates. They operate enough tours. No reason to waste our time, if the guide or main office did the right diligence. And if there was a sudden rock slide...we weren’t going to get through so the extra hour is really useless. All of this to say a once in a lifetime experience wasted due to mismanagement of time, I will never be in Franz Josef again. He focused 95% of his attention on 1-2 people and was short as curt in answering other people’s questions. He told a women when she asked about Christchurch tour which was part of the tour “there is nothing to see, everything has been destroyed”. On a personal note, at 5am the morning I planned to go skydiving he asked my weight and suggested I wouldn’t be able to. First he could have raised this concern day 1 when I signed up. Second he was completely wrong. I did go sky diving. Finally pictures of him drinking to the group inappropriate. As for general logistics, the hotels were comfortable. They were a bit worn. The larger issue was they were a touch remote wanaka and Christchurch particularly. The exception was glamping which was disgusting. 1 porta potties which did not work, they decided to cut the grass before we got there, do cut grass on everything. The bus did breakdown and a replacement was brought in pretty quickly so didn’t waste the day, that was good.
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  Haka Tours commented on this review

  Kia Ora Seema, Thank you so much for your email and taking the time to write to us. We highly value guest feedback in order to continually improve the guest experience on our tours. We are proud of our passionate and experienced tour guides, and... Show more
  Trip date: December 2019